Dayton falls to 0-2 in A-10 road games with loss at UMass

Here’s a quick recap of the game:

What it means: Dayton (11-5, 1-2) followed an 82-62 loss at George Washington on Saturday with its first loss at UMass since 2018. The Flyers fell to 8-12 in Amherst. This might have been Dayton’s last game at the arena because UMass is moving to the Mid-American Conference after this season.

UMass was picked to finish ninth in the preseason poll. George Washington was picked to finish 13th.

Dayton suffered its first back-to-back A-10 losses since the 2022-23 season when it lost 76-69 at George Washington and then 75-70 at Rhode Island.

UMass (6-10, 1-2) won its first A-10 game after losing 81-72 at Saint Joseph’s and 72-64 at home to Richmond.

Star of the game: Daniel Rivera led UMass with 23 points on 8-of-13 shooting. He made 7 of 7 free throws.

Stat of the game: UMass shot a season-best 95% (19 of 20) at the free-throw line. Dayton made 28 of 38 (73.7%).

Turning point: Dayton tied the game on five straight points by Javon Bennett: two free throws and then a transition 3-pointer with 1:48 to play.

On the next possession, UMass took advantage of two offensive rebounds with Rivera scoring after the second one to give the Minutemen a 72-70 lead. Dayton had a chance to tie the game on its next possession, but Malachi Smith made 1 of 2 free throws.

With 34 seconds to play, Marqui Worthy made a jump shot just before the shot clock buzzer to give UMass a 74-71 lead. Then Dayton’s Nate Santos made 1 of 2 free throws.

Rivera made two free throws with 14 seconds to play to seal the victory.

Shooting woes: Dayton shot under 30% from 3-point range (6 of 24, 25%) for the sixth straight game. UMass won despite shooting 15% (3 of 20).

Rebounding difference: UMass had a36-28 advantage on the boards and a 13-7 edge in offensive rebounds.

Looking ahead: Dayton gets a week off before playing George Mason (11-5, 2-1) at 7 p.m. on Jan. 15 at UD Arena. George Mason won 64-58 at home against Richmond on Wednesday.

HALFTIME RECAP

Santos scored 14 points to lead the Dayton Flyers to a 39-36 halftime lead.

Here’s a quick recap of the first half:

Key players: Santos made 3 of 6 field goals and 7 of 7 free throws.

Key stat: Dayton made 3 of 7 3-pointers. UMass made 1 of 7.

Big run: Dayton led 22-12 and had two good looks from 3-point range with a chance to extend its lead to 13 points. Then UMass ran off six straight points to cut Dayton’s lead to 22-18 at the 8:27 mark.

Dayton led the rest of the half, but UMass twice got as close as one point. Enoch Cheeks, who missed his first three shots, got a layup to fall in the final seconds to give Dayton the 3-point halftime lead.

Free-throw parade: The teams combined for 23 fouls. UMass made 11 of 12 free throws. Dayton made 12 of 16.

Mistake prone: Each team committed eight turnovers in the half.